Melbourne to Port Fairy (M2PF)

Winners are grinners!

Winners are ginners - Jock and Hamish MacAdie.

The fleet is still very spread out, but the results table is already fairly settled thanks to a batch arriving around 0730hrs. In IRC, the Paul Buchholz’s very well rated DK46, ‘Extasea’, took 1st from ‘Isuzu Marine’ and then ‘Bacardi’. Pleas note that ‘Spirit of Downunder’ has a protest in over ‘Bacardi’ for a Port and Starboard incident, so stay tuned for a result there.

'Running Wild' when she was the old 'Extasea' from Geelong

Thankfully all boats are now round Cape Otway. Fourth boat home was ‘Spirit of Downunder’, but it is the next bunch of finishers that looks interesting. ‘Running Wild’ has once again come from nowhere and then there is ‘Chikara Outlaw’, ‘The Secretary’, ‘Mirrabooka’, ‘Bacardi’ and ‘Geomatic Joker’. Bill and Jo on ‘Chikara Outlaw’ have done well after their “little detour” to King Island. Look out for them at the bar. There’s got to be a story in that...

In AMS it was ‘Isuzu Marine’ from ‘Extasea’ and ORCV Commodore George Shaw’s ‘The Secretary’ that collects 3rd. He’ll take that as his birthday present for sure. In PHC, the podium is ‘Mirrabooka’, then two of the PFYC locals in ‘Affrayed Knot’ and ‘Running Wild’, so they have done very well and stayed focussed in the trying conditions. ‘Pretty Woman’ still occupies the tail, but ‘Rogue Trader’ has been overtaken by ‘Yoko’ and all three are a way behind ‘Addiction and one of the PFYC entrants, ‘Tevake’. In the end it is great that the whole fleet is still out there and it seems there’s enough breeze to ensure they all make it in for the presentation of the marvellous Gill prize.

Yacht Tracker can be found here: http://www.orcv.org.au/tracker/indexPF.html with the standings available here: http://www.orcv.org.au/tracker/service/race_infoPF.php

By John Curnow

There'll be a few crews arriving shortly - guess what they'll need